Pros
When Personal Capital was functioning more autonomously under Empower over the last few years, advisors were salaried, had flexible PTO, and fairly competitive compensation. Work was and remains strenuous, but knowing you could take off any time needed (as long as your work was done) was a great backstop, both in reality and mentally. We knew changes were coming of some sort, but the nature of these changes was nebulous.
Cons
Now, as Empower Personal Wealth, we just learned we're moving from salaried to hourly, losing flexible PTO in favor of a few weeks a year of vacation+sick together, and will receive on average less in bonus and book AUM payouts. Bonuses are also moving to be paid out annually instead of quarterly. In essence, even senior advisors are moving to a call-center environment, being asked to do the same job for less pay and with less flexibility. This is a move for corporate Empower's sake alone, pursuing a rather hollow goal of trying to be the next Fidelity or Vanguard. As this post is titled, it is just a reversion to the mean. Great companies and poor companies alike, given enough time, eventually drift to the mediocre middle; in the mediocrity, one neither loves their job nor hates their job; one just settles into what is.
